1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an empty bobbin supply device for use in an automatic doffing and donning machine in a spinning machine, and more particularly to an empty bobbin supply device for supplying empty bobbins, commensurate to the doffing operation, with a required position for donning means which travels in front of a plurality of spinning units for doffing a fully wound cheese and donning or mounting an empty or replacement bobbin in place thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, an automatic doffing machine has been known, which travels in front of a plurality of spinning units in a spinning machine for doffing a fully wound cheese from the respective spinning unit and donning or mounting an empty bobbin in place thereof. The doffing machine of the type described consists of a doffing mechanism adapted to remove a fully wound cheese from a winding position, a donning mechanism adapted to mount an empty bobbin in the winding position, a mechanism adapted to receive a cheese from the doffing mechanism and a supply mechanism adapted to supply an empty bobbin to the donning mechanism. However, for a continuous doffing operation by the doffing machine, it is mandatory that the doffing machine itself have a plurality of empty bobbins therein and travel in front of the spinning units, and that the size of the aforesaid doffing machine should be a minimum.
On the other hand, the empty bobbin supply mechanism consists of a box adapted to contain a plurality of empty bobbins therein and means for separately taking out the empty bobbins from the aforesaid box and for transferring same to a position required for the donning mechanism. However, such an empty bobbin supply mechanism suffers from disadvantages in that the mechanism has to have a large size, coupled with the complication of the construction of the means for taking out the empty bobbins from the box and for transferring same to a required position. For instance, according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,340, there is disclosed a device in which a box containing empty bobbins therein is placed under a donning mechanism, and the bobbins are taken out from the box by using a conveyor having receptacles to transfer same to the donning mechanism. However, this still suffers from disadvantages, such as the use of an excessively long conveyor and the need to provide an excessive amount of power to drive the device. Particularly, with this device, the bobbins which have been transferred by the aforesaid conveyor are directly supplied to the donning mechanism, so that the conveyor for taking out bobbins can operate in synchronism with the donning mechanism, and on the other hand, in the case of a failure of a satisfactory operation for taking the bobbins out of the box, the supply of bobbins to the corresponding spinning unit will be interrupted.
As is apparent from the foregoing, the conventional devices have drawbacks in that they are complicated in construction, large in size, costly and particularly inconvenient for use in a doffing machine of the type which travels in a suspended fashion from the top rail of the spinning machine, rather than travelling on the floor.